Mcbride Offers Dcf Solutions

August 1, 2002|By David CM-azares Miami Bureau and Staff Writers Mark Hollis and Bob Lamendola contributed to this report.

Hoping to use the state's troubled child welfare system to his advantage, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to help protect Florida's abandoned, abused and neglected children but could not estimate its cost.

At the Juvenile Justice Center in Miami, where he met with child welfare advocates, McBride also criticized Gov. Jeb Bush for failing to give judges, state caseworkers and guardians ad litem the resources they need.

"In 1998, Jeb Bush promised the people of Florida that he was going to clean up and fix the Department of Children & Families," McBride said. "It's been 3 1/2 years now and the situation's worse than it's ever been. ... He needs to be held accountable."

McBride, a Tampa lawyer, is challenging former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami in the Sept. 10 primary.

Trailing Reno in the polls, McBride joined her in trying to hold Bush accountable for the crisis within the state Department of Children & Families. The agency has been under fire since the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, 5, in Miami, and the July 1 death of Alfredo Montes, 2, of Central Florida, who police say was killed by a babysitter on the day that his DCF worker falsely reported visiting him.

McBride's proposals include:

Convening a national advisory panel on the child welfare system.

Conducting a national search for an experienced child welfare manager to head DCF.

Launching a six-month effort to train and hire more child welfare workers.

Focusing on prevention.

Ensuring that every child in the child protection system has an advocate.

McBride said that a commission offered a plan to correct the system's worst failures, while the state Senate voted to add $12 million a year to the Guardian Ad Litem program. But he said the additional money was opposed by the governor and killed in the House.

McBride's plan calls for smaller caseloads, higher salaries, better training and possibly additional staff. He stumbled, however, when asked to explain how much his plan would cost or where the money would come from.

McBride said he would determine "whether or not the people of Florida are willing to go down a different road ... that's going to invest in children." But he did not elaborate.

The candidate's campaign staff later complained that reporters had not asked Reno, who has made similar proposals without price tags, for her costs and funding sources.

During a meeting with the Sun-Sentinel editorial board on Wednesday, Reno said DCF needs a top administrator "with a proven track record," a bigger budget and more emphasis on child-abuse prevention.

"The first thing we need to do is put our resources up front to prevent abuses in the first place," Reno said. "Early childhood programs are that important."

The governor's office has said that Bush does not think that DCF is a political issue, nor that that any person, Republican or Democrat, has a monopoly on good ideas for improving the system.

On Wednesday, Jill Bratina, a Bush spokeswoman, said the governor will rely on a panel for suggested changes and improvements.